Common red-legged robberfly
The common red-legged robberfly is a slim, black hunting fly. Its front legs are bright orange-red, while its back legs are mostly black. It snatches other insects out of the air and stabs them with its hard, sharp mouth.
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Fun facts
Its young, the larvae, also live as hunters in the ground.
It especially likes to catch small wasps that lay their eggs in other insects.
You can see it from May until July or August.
It is hard to tell apart from its close cousins, even for experts.
Most asked questions about Common red-legged robberfly
?What does the common red-legged robberfly eat?
Other insects, especially small wasps, sawflies and little flies.
?How big is the common red-legged robberfly?
Its body is about 8 to 15 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Dioctria rufipes
- Group
- Flies and mosquitoes
- Family
- Asilidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Diptera > Asilidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia
Where the facts come from
- Dioctria rufipes (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Hectonichus. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The sticker of this bug is drawn from this picture.
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